Now for Trump the Inevitable About-Face

From "Trump Embraces Pillars of Obama’s Foreign Policy," by Mark Landler, Peter Baker and David Sanger. the inevitable:

WASHINGTON — President Trump, after promising a radical break with the foreign policy of Barack Obama, is embracing some key pillars of the former administration’s strategy, including warning Israel to curb settlement construction, demanding that Russia withdraw from Crimea and threatening Iran with sanctions for ballistic missile tests.

In the most startling shift, the White House issued an unexpected statement appealing to the Israeli government not to expand the construction of Jewish settlements beyond their current borders in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. Such expansion, it said, “may not be helpful in achieving” the goal of peace.

At the United Nations, Ambassador Nikki R. Haley declared that the United States would not lift sanctions against Russia until it stopped destabilizing Ukraine and pulled troops out of Crimea.

On Iran, the administration is preparing economic sanctions similar to those the Obama administration imposed just over a year ago. The White House has also shown no indication that it plans to rip up Mr. Obama’s landmark nuclear deal, despite Mr. Trump’s withering criticism of it during the presidential campaign.

The New Cold War will be maintained, as will belligerence towards Iran and the U.S. charade of commitment to a Palestinian state; add to this counting off of Deep State pillars the "safe zones" in Syria and all pretense that Trump represents a change of course needs to be dropped.

Trump wants to rule; in order to do that he needs the sinews of the state at his command. He can't handle a rebellion on the streets at the same time there is a rebellion in the back offices of Foggy Bottom and Langley.

It will be interesting now that Trump is turning his battleship away from conflict with the Deep State to see how the prestige press treats all the various protests -- the water protectors, the women's marchers, the scientists on parade, the immigrant's rights rallies. The pessimist in me thinks that maybe not immediately but before too long the message from the mainstream media will be, "Okay folks. Let's pack it up and go home. You made your point. And you're looking kind of scattered and sounding whiny. You don't want to end up behind bars, do you?"

But while Trump's pirouette might earn him some allegiance from the Deep State his supporters are not going to be mollified merely by boorish behavior and hostile tweets,

Things have changed. People have rejected the ruling ideology of neoliberal redistribution of wealth. This is driven home by an article on British Parliament overwhelming backing Brexit (Stephen Castle, "Theresa May Gets Parliament’s Backing on ‘Brexit’ Bill"). It was just last June that the British Parliament overwhelming opposed Brexit:

The June 23 plebiscite, in which around 52 percent of those voting chose to leave, has transformed the Conservative Party, which had been split over a British exit, into an enthusiast for it.

Though the opposition Labour Party campaigned last year to remain, its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is a lifelong critic of European integration and never seemed fully convinced about the pro-European case. On Wednesday, he instructed his lawmakers to vote to allow Brexit negotiations to start, an order that prompted a rebellion within his party.

Yet, that was limited to less than 50 people, because even Labour’s most ardent proponents of remaining know that some of their usual supporters ignored their advice and voted to leave.

That has provoked an almost existential crisis for Labour, one hinted at on Tuesday when Keir Starmer, the Labour politician responsible for dealing with the British exit, noted that two-thirds of Labour lawmakers represent constituencies that voted to leave in the referendum.

 The crisis will deepen.